at Liibeck. These assemblies met once a year about mid summer, usually but not exclusively at Liibeck. They were attended by representatives of the various towns, but no one below the rank of councillor could act as representa tive. The League always endeavoured to maintain its aristocratic character. The assemblies busied themselves with all the details of foreign policy as well as of internal management. The penalty for non-observance of their decrees was expulsion from the League (Verhansung). The chief offence which brought this punishment on a town was the admission of democratic tendencies. The struggle between the artisans and the old burgher families, which is so important a feature of European history in the 13th and 14th centuries, necessarily affected the Hanse towns. It was for admitting artisans to the council that Brunswick
was expelled from the League in 1375, and was not readmitted till 1380, when the old constitution was restored.Besides the central constitution of the Hansa, there are also traces of an internal grouping. A.t Bruges the German merchants are divided, according as they came from (1) the Wendish and Saxon towns, (2) Westphalia and Prussia, (3) Gothland, Livonia, and Sweden. This division is supposed to refer to a real division of the League, each third being gathered round one of the three chief towns, Liibeck, Cologne, and Wisby. But in later times we find the League divided into four quarters with their respective capitals, Liibeck, Cologne, Brunswick, and Dantzic.
Although, by comparing the documents which have come down to us, we can trace the existence of a fairly definite system of government, yet we must not imagine that this system was carried out with the regularity of a modern constitution. The composition of the League was always fluctuating, and it is impossible to say at any fixed time how many members it contained. The towns lay scattered over a large territory extending from Revel to the Scheldt, and their interests, both territorial and com mercial, must have often clashed. It was only in time of danger that the League displayed any real consistency. When the immediate danger was withdrawn, the want of union soon made itself again manifest. It is true that the towns joined the League of their own accord, but when they had joined, they tried to make their position as independent as possible. They never considered themselves bound to send deputies to the general assemblies. When the depu ties did appear they usually came late, and after a matter had been discussed they would insist on referring it to the town-council at home, as their own powers were insufficient. The wonder lies, not in the dissensions which sprang up among the towns, bub in the fact that for three centuries they did in a manner hold together, and not infrequently sacrificed their individual advantages for the common good.
From the very moment of the treaty of Stralsund, the weakness of a community founded chiefly on commercial interests began to show itself. The eastern Baltic towns, especially those of Prussia, were indignant at the erection of a staple at Liibeck. They desired to trade directly with England and Flanders. To repress this movement Liibeck as the head of the League entered into the closest relations with the Teutonic order. But the evil of these dissensions lay in the fact that they distracted the attention of the Hanse towns from events in Scandinavia. The influence guaranteed to them by the treaty of Stralsund was never exercised, and their supineness allowed Margaret, Waldemar Ill s, daughter, to unite the crowns of the three Scandi navian kingdoms at Calmar in 1397. The erection of a powerful northern state was obviously dangerous to the ascendency of the Hansa. About the same time their allies, the Teutonic knights, were threatened in a similar manner by the accession of the Jagellon dynasty in Poland. The battle of Tannenberg (1410) and the peace of Thorn (1411) were clear signs that the Slavonic race was beginning to turn the tables on its German oppressors. At one time it seemed probable that Slavs and Scandinavians would unite in a great anti-German crusade, and that the Hansa and the Teutonic order the pioneers of German civilization in northern Europe would fall victims to the alliance. During the 15th century the Hanse towns were frequently compelled to seek safety in arms. Their con stant policy was to break up the union of Calmar. In 1428 they sent a large fleet against Eric, Margaret s successor, who wished to add Schleswig and Holstein to his possessions. The accession of two German princes, Christopher of Bavaria and Christian I. of Oldenburg, to the Danish crown was due in no slight measure to the exertions of the Hansa. On the whole the League held its own in this century, though not without considerable and increasing difficulty.
But with the 16th century the Hansa begins really to decline. The English and Dutch proved formidable rivals for the commercial supremacy in northern Europe. Henry VII. secured in 1489 a treaty from Hans of Denmark, which gave England the right of commerce in the northern seas, and which enabled English merchants to found mer cantile establishments in the ports. The herrings no longer came in crowds to the Swedish and Norwegian coasts, where the members of the Hansa had so long held a practi cal monopoly of the fisheries. These fish made at this time one of their periodical changes of course, and went to the coasts of Holland. The Dutch were not slow to grasp at the advantages thus offered to them. Another great blow was dealt to Hanseatic commerce by the grand discoveries of the age. Most of the German towns were out of the way of the new commercial routes, and could scarcely hope to hold their own with more favourably situated countries. Besides these causes of decline, the domestic position of the Hanse towns had altered very much for the worse. While in other countries the power of the feudal nobles had fallen before the rapid rise of the monarchy aided by the sympathy of the commons, in Germany alone the power of the princes had constantly increased, at the expense of both king and people. The Reformation and the con sequent secularization of church property in northern Germany only served to strengthen the hands of the lay princes. Such a state of things was fatal to the independ ence of a town league which had always stood opposed to the lawless independence of the nobles. Gradually most of the towns fell off from the League. Foreign countries triumphed at the fall of their formerly successful rival. In Elizabeth s reign the Hanse merchants in London lost the privileges which they had held since the time of Henry III.
Religious disturbances and the fearful disasters of the Thirty Years War completed the work thus begun. The peace of Westphalia restored tlie form but not the reality of the League. In 1669 the last general assembly was held. Henceforth the name of Hanse towns was kept by Liibeck, Hamburg, and Bremen, but it was to designate their independence, not their union.
References.—Hanse-Rccesse, 1256-1430, B. i.-iv., and 1431-1476, B. i. and ii.; G. F. Sartorius, Urkimdliche GescJnchte des Ur- spnmgcs der deutschcn Hanse (edited by J. M. Lappenberg) ; Lap- penberg, UrTcundliche GescMchte des hansischen Stahlhofes zu London (Hamburg, 1851) ; Wehrmann, Die Liibcckischcn Zunft- rollen (Lubeck, 1872) ; Karl von Schlozer, Die Hansa und der deutsclie Rittcr-Orden in den Ostsceldndcrn the Hansische Gesichts- bldtter; Schafe;, Die Hansestddtc und Konig Waldemar von Dane- mark (1878).
was born on December 8, 1795, at Tondern, in the duchy of Schleswig. When a youth he served an apprenticeship to a clock and watchmaker at Flensburg, with whom he
remained several years. During this time he exhibited an
